alecdbrooks
Joined 14 years ago
Karma
499
Submissions
151
Member since
Jan 13
Recent submissions
Comment · 10 years ago
I'm sure the FDA could be more efficient, but isn't a large part of the difficulty intrinsic to bringing a safe and effective device to the market? The flip side of people dying from not having an Epipen is people dying because their generic Epipen didn't work.
Comment · 10 years ago
In another post, the author states outright that she likes many styles [0], so the idea she promotes "sterile, totalitarian looking architecture" is off the mark. The original post itself includes a diversity of good examples, so I'm not sure where that came from.
I guess I find it hard to take your claims seriously until you explain why you've concluded the author wants to enact her tastes into law rather than just discuss them.
>People find "careless" designs interesting.
I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. It just that in some (many?) cases, careless designs are less likely to be widely appealing or stand up to scrutiny.
[0]: http://mcmansionhell.tumblr.com/post/148836824926/man-i-love...
Comment · 10 years ago
>I find it inappropriate and offensive that this author decides to be the sole authority on aesthetics of PRIVATE properties, appealing to some sort of an unassailable, celestial authority that mainstream architecture is and promoting boring, utilitarian designs. Just how far down the slippery slope of the rabbit hole do you want to go? Why not box people in grey Soviet apartment buildings?
This is a straw man. The author isn't against interesting designs, just careless ones. And interpreting this article as a advocating authoritarianism is reading a lot into it.
Comment · 10 years ago
I could be wrong, but I don't think projektir means they "feel like shit" even when they exercise. I think they mean they occasionally feel like shit after exercising, which obscures the benefit.
If so, I'm in projektir's camp. I often feel better after exercising, but sometimes I feel worse. Also, I don't necessarily see a clear day-to-day improvement.
There are definite health benefits to exercise for most people [0], but I don't think subjectively feeling better is necessarily as widespread as some exercise proponents think.
[0]: Video summary of the evidence for exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFBBjynBpSw
Comment · 10 years ago
I don't think the barrier is nearly that high. I could see people downloading co-op apps if they hear that they have more drivers or better drivers. Getting to that part is difficult, sure, but not out-of-hand impossible.
Comment · 10 years ago
Totally agree. Hacker News readers like to promote their favorite, but I think most of us are ultimately pragmatists. For example, Vim is a personal favorite, but I've been using Microsoft Office's built-in VBA editor for most of my recent programming because it fits the problem I'm trying to solve best.
Comment · 10 years ago
To be fair, there is some precedent. Printf, QuickCheck, and other libraries and features keep the exact same name as they're copied from language to language.
Comment · 10 years ago
It fits with Chris Arnade's other reporting on addiction, but it does seem a bit too focused on McDonald's and a bit too uniformly positive (aside from noting that readers might "sneer").
The Guardian does do native advertising [0], and I find their labeling policy unclear. This case study [1] by their native advertising division, Guardian Labs, highlights videos that are very clearly labeled [2] but also an article [3] that doesn't seem to be. Their policy on commercial content [4] seems to suggest that everything is clearly labeled, but at least in this case they either didn't follow it or ignored the distinctions in the case study.
[0]: http://www.adweek.com/news/press/guardians-unusual-take-nati...
[1]: http://guardianlabs.theguardian.com/projects/silent-circle-t...
[2]: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/ng-interactive/2015...
[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/18/guardian-...
[4]: https://www.theguardian.com/info/2016/jan/25/content-funding
Comment · 10 years ago
I like the theme—I'm guessing it's supposed to be reminiscent of early Mac OS and HyperCard? That seems to fit HyperDev's goal of getting up and running quickly so you can enjoy building something.
Comment · 10 years ago
Another approach would be to use cron/anacron/launchd. Although these are technically serve a different purpose (running commands automatically), I find a lot of my background commands also should run regularly.
Comment · 10 years ago
I don't think knowing when you're being asked to work too much is a thing that comes automatically with whatever job skills you're hired for. Even if you work in management or HR, where having a sense of "too much work" is part of your job, you might not be objective enough to apply that expertise to yourself.
And even if you know you're working too long, you might not feel empowered to do something about it. This could be because you literally don't have the power—your employer requires everyone to work unreasonable hours—or because you lack the confidence or skills to use it.
Comment · 10 years ago
Not to dismiss your experience as a resident of a country that's received significant aid, but there's substantial evidence that cash transfers work, which GiveDirectly has compiled[0], including the following benefits:
—Adults more likely to work, even five years later.
—Children are healthier and get more education.
—Adults do not spend the extra money on things like alcohol or tobacco.
—Adults make significantly more when surveyed years after receiving the cash grant.
GiveWell, which has spent a lot of effort evaluating GiveDirectly, does have some lingering concerns [1] that programs like GiveDirectly's might worsen inflation or hurt people who don't receive a grant and live nearby. Research on these questions isn't conclusive, but suggests some minor, short-term effects. I suspect broadening programs to more recipients will mitigate the latter problem.
[0]: https://givedirectly.org/research-on-cash-transfers
[1]: http://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/cas...
Update: Fixed formatting and added to final paragraph.
Comment · 10 years ago
I would enjoy it if they used +ε and -ε for that, although +0 and -0 is probably clearer.
Comment · 10 years ago
>Try incorporating some java code in a ruby project, however. No possible way that is going to fly.
I don't think this example is convincing. There are too many languages to expect arbitrary pairings to combine well. (Not to mention the fact that googling "java ruby" returns JRuby, which apparently lets you do just what you describe.)
I do agree with your last point: Even when we look at similar languages, like Python and Ruby, we don't declare one a winner, generally.
Twitter: @alecbrooks
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